The 90’s were hard on our brows. Let’s take a moment to apologize to the hair gods for all the abuse that we inflicted on ourselves during this time of angst, confused casual wear, wierd shorts and over tweezed eyebrows. During this moment of solidarity, let us also take a minute to bow down to Jennifer Connelly of The Labyrinth an The Rocket Man (?) fame. She rocked her brows thick all the way through the 90’s and she was a major babe.

I In the late 1990’s, I tweezed my brows to resemble smelt, small shapeless stumpy fish commonly used as bate for bigger fish.

You can see me on the bottom right hand side, circa 1997. Times were tough, and my tweezers were always dull and very overused. Unfortunately, many of my brow hairs took this assault personally and took off for good, leaving me with thinnish, light-ish eyebrows that didn’t do much but sit there and blend in with my face.

Big brows are back, this we know. I think, though, that it is just the tip of the iceberg of a major resurgence of feminism-era body hair coming back into the mainstream. We will talk more about this later. Today I want to talk about how I resurrected my eyebrows from the damage I did in the 90’s.

First, I asked the question “Is there any way to make my brows grow back?”

First step, growth!

I felt like a dummy, initially. I felt like I was asking for wings so I could fly. But then, I started doing some research. I found many articles mentioning Castor Oil as a hair regrowth solution for thinning brows and lashes. I was skeptical. But I tried it, for a month to start.

Every night, I applied straight Castor Oil to my brows pretty thick. And I will be damned if I didn’t start to notice tiny, light colored hairs sprouting out above and below my thin eyebrow line. I kid you not at all.

After a month, I kept it up, but not every night. More like when I remembered, which ended up being once or twice a week. After 3 months, I had real brows again. But, you still couldn’t see them because they were so light!

Next step, color!

Babes, I am not a makeup person. I get to messy and smeary with makeup and it doesn’t feel right for me. I know many of you draw in or powder your brows and I’m totally down and I support you in this. But I went for the big guns.

Now I know that there is dye that is specifically made for eyebrows. But I didn’t have any of it at my disposal so I reached for my Keune professional hair color in 6-1 and 20 volume developer. Mixed a dab of each together in a color bowl with a disposable mascara wand. Let it sit for 12 minutes. Wiped it off with water and a rag.

Low and behold, all of my new little blond hairs had picked up the darker color and I had real eyebrows again! Really and truly! I am amazed at how much more awake I look with eyebrows. And for being a mother of two young daughters, it goes a long way. Yes ma’am!

This was a year ago, and I regularly color my brows now every 5 weeks on the reg to keep em fresh, dark, and bushy. I’m not using the Castor Oil anymore because I haven’t needed to.

I consider this one of my best personal beauty tricks. I love how the dark brows frame my eyes and add some contrast to my face. Not much effort for big time results!

Things to remember when coloring your own eyebrows at home….

Keep the color as far away from your eyes as possible. If any contact occurs, flush with water immediately. Just be careful and mindful.

Unless you are a redhead, I recommend using an ash-based color instead of a nuetral or warm. A hint of gold in your brows can totally throw off the natural vibe.

Go to Sally Beauty and get a color from the Ion Brilliance line, and the corresponding 20 volume developer.

* If you are fair skinned and fair haired, I would use a level 7 ash.

* If you are medium like myself, use a 6 ash.

* Anything darker, go with a 5, 4, or 3 depending on how dark you want your brows to be.

If these numbers do not make sense, get a little color theory refresher here;)

Apply the color to the right brow first, in small strokes with your mascara wand. Brush your entire brow upward with the color, then downward, making sure that you thoroughly coat all hairs on and around the edges of the brow. Then move on the the left. Process for 12 minutes, then remove the color from your right brow first, with a damp rag and a touch of soap. Let your left brow process a bit longer (as long as it took to apply that first brow’s color) so that they process for the same amount of time, ya dig?

I hope this post changes your brow game.

xo, HTHG